Women as teammates: Gender composition of village councils and policy outcomes in India

In this paper, we contend that elected women leaders’ ability to affect public services in favour of women citizens is conditional on the gender composition of the councils they lead. We leverage variation in the gender of village heads and composition of village councils, driven by an Indian reservation mandate. Using IHDS-II dataset, we find that access to piped drinking water and widows’ pension is significantly better in those women-led village councils that also have more women. Subgroup analysis shows that when the gender composition of these councils is in favour of women leader’s caste, households report lesser girl harassment, but also lower access to piped water among disadvantage caste groups. Our results underscore the importance of critical mass of women members in village councils. Their collective strength and relational role with women heads shape the latter’s effectiveness in delivering women‑preferred outcomes.